On this day of the year 538 A.D., the holy father St. Severus, Patriarch of Antioch, departed. He was from Asia Minor. His grandfather, whose name was also Severus, saw in a vision someone telling him, "The child who is for your son will strengthen Orthodoxy, and his name will be after your name." When his son had this saint, he called him Severus. He was taught the Greek wisdom and church subjects.

Once, the saint was strolling outside the city, a shut-in saint came out of his cave crying, "Welcome to you Severus, teacher of Orthodoxy, and Patriarch of Antioch." Severus marvelled at how he called him by his name, for he did not know him before, and how he foretold what would become of him.

Severus grew in virtue and became a monk in the monastery of St. Romanus. The fame of his righteousness and his ascetic life spread out. When the Patriarch of Antioch departed, the bishops had a consensus to ordain him the Patriarch of the city in the year 512 A.D. The church was illuminated by his teachings which spread to all the universe, and he was one of the fathers who attended the Universal Council at Ephesus.

Shortly after, Emperor Anastasius died and Justinian, who was Chalcedonian in faith, reigned after him. He called upon this holy father and gave him great honors to persuade him to change his stand and to follow the Emperor's belief, but the Saint refused. The Emperor became angry, but the Saint did not fear his anger, and so the Emperor ordered him to be killed. Theodora, the Emperor's wife who was Orthodox in faith, knew about what the Emperor intended to do, so she told the saint to flee from his face.

St. Severus escaped to the land of Egypt and traveled everywhere and visited monasteries disguised as a monk. He strengthened the faith of the believers in the Orthodox doctrine. He dwelt in the city of Sakha in the home of a holy lay leader called Doretheos. God performed through him many miracles. He departed in the city of Sakha, and his body was relocated to the monastery of El-Zugag.

His prayers be with us all. Amen.

« Last Edit: February 20, 2006, 06:22:32 PM by EkhristosAnesti »

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"Philosophy is the imitation by a man of what is better, according to what is possible" - St Severus

The teachings of the wise and great Severus Are a likeness of all the right doctors and mystic instructors of the Church.

For in him one may see of Ignatius the God-clad and the tried martyr the holy and God-inspired words; Of Athanasius the illustrious champion and combatant the extended and exact knwoledge of the faith;Of Basil and Gregory the sublime preaching of theology;And of Joannes the admonitory instruction which pours forth and expands like the sea;Of Cyril the exactitude of teaching concerning dogmas;Of all together the purity of life and of virtuius conduct.

While celebrating this man's memory, let us praise Christ, who is God, who by his grace displayed and raised up for his churches in our times one so resplendent: whom let us beseech and say,

The virtues and glories of the saintly Severus the High-priest what languagecan praise? Or who is there who is sufficient to narrate as they deserve hiscontests in which he strove for the sake of the truth? who, as soon as he cameand was made manifest the sacred and apostolic seat, by means of soundwords or with heavenly pasture fed the rational sheep of Christ's flock; andagain, moving hand also as well as tongue, by the arrow-shots made withink and pen with which he fought exposed and defeated and destroyed all heresies;and, while he was hidden in unknown countries from his persecutors,by means of his God-inspired writings filled all the world with orthodox doctrines; by whose prayers, Lord of all, gather together the scattered limbsof the church and bring them into one unity, and deliver us in thy mercy, as thou art merciful.

The Spirit also descends upon Him because of us. Now this Spirit is not one of the ministering spirits, but it is the Spirit of God, the consubstantial Spirit who reigns at the same time with Him and with the Father. It is why, indeed, the evangelist himself said in a demonstrative manner: the Spirit of God, this Spirit who had abandoned the human race, on the subject of which the Lord God said: My Spirit will not remain eternally among men, because they are flesh. But this charitable being, who, by the generosity of His grace, as He Himself willed to modify His own decree, abolishing for us this sentence, after also being made flesh without change Himself, draws the Spirit upon the flesh, at the moment when He united His divinity with the creature who had been condemned and thus sends grace to all our race.

St. Severus of Antioch

Blessed feast of St. Severus everyone!

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Vain existence can never exist, for "unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain." (Psalm 127)

If the faith is unchanged and rock solid, then the gates of Hades never prevailed in the end.